Many people have many different ideas about what it takes to resolve a haunting. A great number of people have only what they have seen on TV shows and in movies to base their ideas on. Unfortunately, much of what is shown on TV is not necessarily a comprehensive, or correct presentation of what it takes to resolve a haunting at all. Resolving haunts is a tricky business. Every haunting has it's own elements which need to be addressed and different solutions are needed for different cases. It would be great if all you had to do, was have the clergy bless the house or say some magic words or prayers to make it all go away, but sometimes it is just not that easy at all. Prayers are most effective with truly evil entities not with the average human spirit, who just wants attention, or interaction. Now this brings us to our first consideration with a haunting, which is what we call :

Familial haunts.

Since the majority of hauntings are initiated by human spirits, you have to consider human nature and the problems and issues that people have, because they carry them into the next life too. Some spirits may be truly evil, but the majority are just doing what comes naturally. They are trying to interact for a reason and sometimes they want something specific, that they will not give up on. Living people also play a part sometimes in attracting a spirit into their home. Even something as commonplace as missing someone who has passed and dwelling on thoughts of them, can bring them around to visit. Not realizing that, the person who did the dwelling and unknowingly sent out the call, thinks they are being haunted by some evil spirit, if and when they pick up on the presence in the home. "Fear " always assumes the worst in a situation right?

Many hauntings are about family drama, and can usually be resolved by communication and appeasing the deceased loved one in whatever it is they want to convey or have known. Sometimes like with all families, you will have issues and personal clashes between people, that the family just has to work out on it's own. For example:chances are, if your mother in law hates you now, she will still hate you after she passes and may indeed try to get your goat, when she can. Most of the time ignoring the activity is enough to discourage it eventually, in cases like this.

Now over the years I have seen hauntings that were brought about by many scenarios. I have seen relatives who returned to warn a loved one of something, or to relay a message. I have seen relatives that come back to interfere in their living loved ones lives. Many times we get information during a case investigation from a spirit that we never needed or wanted to know. We have been informed of all kinds of bad behaviors by the living family members, that upset the spirit or that the spirit wants to expose if they feel a loved one is being deceived or taken advantage of. This sometimes puts us in a very uncomfortable and difficult position.

Karmic haunts:

Because of liability we can not inform a client of certain things, such as criminal action on the part of a family member, cheating on a spouse, or any other derogatory information. This is because, should anything happen within the family after our sharing that information we could be held responsible and accused of lying about the whole thing, as everyone always kills the messenger right? Some things are just none of our business in our opinion. If something comes out in an evp during our investigation, live and for the whole client's family to hear, well that is not our problem, and we will not become involved in that affair. So some cases we can not resolve because we can not divulge what the spirit is implying in our own best interest, should something sketchy come up.

At one case a long time ago we had a spirit inform us that our client murdered them. Now if that were true, would it be in our best interest to tell the client? If the spirit was lying than we would be making a very heavy and wrong accusation at best. If the client was a murderer that would be putting ourselves in a dangerous position right? In life, we all think that there are some things, that we can get away with, without anyone knowing about it. Well spirits can and do see many things and some spirits are all too eager to rat out someone, whose actions they disapprove of. Sometimes the walls literally do have ears and eyes folks. The ghost in the closet will sometimes bring out the skeletons in the closet, so anyone with something to hide should not call in a haunts resolutionist, unless they are ready to risk the spirits telling us all about it.

Who done it?

More often than not one of the biggest problems in trying to resolve a haunting is trying to figure out which spirit is the antagonist or the initiator of the haunting. In my experience, it is not getting the spirit to communicate that is the problem, but discerning which spirit is causing the activity in a home. This is because many spirits will often be, in any given place. In addition to the resident spirit in a home we often have what we call "drop ins". Drop ins are spirits that do not reside with the client, and are not associated with the haunting, but who came by, when they picked up on our call to interact. Many spirits have something they want to relay or just want a chance to commune with the living for whatever reason, so they do show up to attempt this when the chance comes along. Any spirit happening by may hear the call and show up to answer it. This means you have to dis-cipher between who is related to what is going on and who is not. We face this all the time and have certain methods of doing this. Many novice ghost hunters assume, that whatever spirit gives them an evp, must be the one doing the haunting. This is a tumultuous mistake, that can derail the investigation and accomplish nothing to resolve it.

The Plot thickens:

Another thing that often is assumed is that the spirit haunting has to be someone once associated with the property or the family. teams do research and every home and every area has it's history, so they find something and then figure they are on the right track, for example: A house that is having haunt problems turns out to have had a person die there, or a tragic event nearby, so the investigators automatically look in that direction to find the reason for the haunt. Hauntings are not always that simple or cut and dried. Sometimes you may find that whatever is going on in the home, may have nothing whatsoever to do with previous history of the property at all. When you are ghost hunting some of these standards may be okay because you are not really trying to resolve a haunting just prove it is going on, but with haunts resolution this formula is sorely lacking. Just like a detective trying to resolve a crime you have to consider every possibility, leave no rock unturned and be willing to step outside of traditional assumptions. This includes accepting help from a valid spirit sensitive, maybe more than one.

Spirit sensitives:

Not only can a psychic person add to your options for acquiring information, that you may be able to verify later, but these people actually attract spirits and double your chances for spirit communication via EVP and other sources. Spirit sensitives are often scoffed at and ridiculed by the science minded skeptics, but then again those skeptics don't believe in spirits and/or hauntings in the first place, so why would they want to try and resolve a haunting ? People who genuinely have a gift of this kind are instrumental sometimes in helping to resolve a haunting. People who are fakers on the other hand usually make matters worse, so it is wise to research the track record and experience of anyone you bring into your home to try and help with haunting. It is also advisable to be careful when seeking a spirit sensitive for a paranormal team that wants to work with haunts resolution for the same reason. Usually the people who are the most vocal about their gifts and spouting what they see and feel , every five minutes are the ones that are the biggest fakers. Truly gifted people are more reserved and less egotistical about their gifts. Leave the theatrical entertainers to the entertainment field, and leave them out of real research and investigation. Also never pay anyone money to resolve your haunting. This applies especially to those who claim to be able to do it remotely from afar. If something sounds just too amazing to be possible it probably is and while many make this claim, I have never seen anyone pull it off. They may by the power of suggestion put the clients mind at ease in a situation where the haunting was in the client's mind but in reality is anyone really that all powerful as to be able to psychically eradicate your ghost from afar? If they were would they not have more spiritual grace than to ask you for money to do it?

Getting the real scoop:

EVP is the most effective form of obtaining information about a haunting and yet , sometimes the most undervalued and under analysed by paranormal teams. This is because most people do not know how to obtain it, how to decipher it and how to clean it up to accurately hear what is truly being said. Very few people have any real experience with working with EVPS at an advanced level. Many folks do not even understand how their sound programs work or what options they have to work with a sound file. They amplify it, take out some noise and then rest easy that they did the job. Most teams listen and take the first thing they hear as what is being said. This is another grave mistake. EVPS can sound very misleading because certain sounds and frequencies can be lacking or too low for you to actually hear all the syllables. It takes extensive work to bring them out and make them audible in a way that they can be understood. Some evps are just too buried in the noise or too convoluted to ever decipher with any accuracy. I sometimes work for a really long time with one EVP that I know is important to a case. I am not willing to be wrong, or make a hasty decision as to what is being said. Never go with the first thing you think you hear, clean the evps well and get other people's perceptions on what they hear too.

Knowing when to quit:

Many people in the paranormal field do not want to let go of a case once they get one because they are usually novices who really want to investigate somewhere, anywhere? Because of this they do not know when to admit they are in over their heads with a haunt case. They will try everything they see on TV and read in books and lead the client, to believe that they have the know how and experience to do this, when in reality they do not. Messing with a spirit if you have no idea what you are doing or have no real experience with it can land you and your client in all kinds of trouble. If you are a paranormal team or investigator and you get into a hostile haunting that you have no experience or track record resolving, then get out and call in someone who has what it takes to help your client.

Sometimes even the most experienced person comes across a case that they cannot resolve. Some things are well beyond our ability as human beings, and somewhere along the line we have to admit that. I have walked away from a few cases over the years because I knew in my heart that I could not resolve the case for whatever reason, or because it was a karmic haunt or something I felt uncomfortable getting involved in. There is nothing wrong with stepping away if you feel you can not help. In fact sometimes it is the best thing to do for all concerned. Some things just have to run their course for reasons that we are not privy to in this life. We all have to admit and face our limitations at some point.http://www.pinellaspascoparanormal.com/theunresolved.htm

TRULY HOSTILE HAUNTINGS:

Sooner or later a paranormal investigator will walk into what seems to be a truly hostile haunting. So when this happens, this is my best advice to you. 1. Never assume that this is a demonic haunt or tell a client such things. You are just making a bad situation worse. Demons may exist but in 33 years I have not seen one demon, not one! I have seen lots of angry and powerful human spirits and that is what most hostile haunts are caused by. Don't give a spirit more credit or power than it deserves, or you give it the upper hand. I am so sick and tired of people calling me and saying "I have a demon in my home, I know it because such and such team said I did!" or "I know it is a demon because I saw this same thing on TV." One thing I know for sure is that people "know" nothing for sure about the spirit in their home, when they know nothing about spirits in the first place. This whole demon thing is overrated and promoted by television and irresponsible paranormal teams, and supposed "demonologists" who want to stay in business. Get to the root of what is going on before you declare anything a "DEMON!" All you accomplish with this nonsense is to scare the person being haunted even more than they were before. If you find yourself in a hostile haunting, get help from someone in the know about these haunts. I advise other groups all over the country all the time with these cases. The first step to learning is to admit you don't know! In that case find someone who does and enlist their aide. Even if they are far away they can walk you through it if you have what it takes to do it right. Please read this article if we did a cleansing or resolution for you: http://www.pinellaspascoparanormal.com/theaftermath.htm